How was Christ successful?
As mature Christians, we’ve learned that loving Jesus and following Him is the secret to life.
If we’ve truly experienced walking with Him, we want to share that knowledge and experience with others. Mentoring is simply that sharing what we’ve learned about living life with others who are a few steps behind us on the path.
Just look at how Jesus made His disciples. He picked them, walked through life with them, teaching them what He knew along the way. He challenged them, prayed for them, loved them individually and collectively, and then He “graduated” them and sent them out to “play it forward” to others.
He gave them assignments and then debriefed them when they returned. Sometimes He took over situations and finished them when His disciples couldn’t. Jesus “rubbed off” on his disciples and those around Him.
Sounds like a mentor to me.
Mark 4:41, "And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?"
MARK 4:35-41 (NKJV)
Wind and Wave Obey Jesus
35 On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side.” 36 Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with Him. 37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. 38 But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”
39 Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. 40 But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” 41 And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!”
When God created this physical world and all of its inhabitants, He gave mankind authority to rule and subdue His creation. Although God still owned the universe and all that was in it, He gave control of the earth to man.
When mankind sinned, they began to use this power against God's wishes.
But God did not ordain all the terrible things that have happened throughout history, and yet He did not take back man's right to dominate the earth. Instead, He became a man and took back that authority to Himself by conquest. After Jesus' resurrection, He said in Matthew 28:18, "... All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth," and then He gave the great commission to His disciples, thereby conferring that authority upon them, also. Jesus becoming flesh was absolutely essential for gaining all power (or authority) in heaven and in earth. Jesus was a "God-man." As stated in 1 Timothy 3:16, He was God manifested in the flesh, which is a great mystery.
Jesus came in the power and authority of His Father to point men to the Father God.
Jesus existed before His advent on this earth in the form of God and was equal with God; yet, He humbled Himself and became a servant while here on earth. He did not come to promote Himself but to give Himself as the way unto the Father.
This is radically different from the way so called "great men" present themselves.
The Roman Caesar of Jesus' day proclaimed that he was God and demanded worship. Lesser leaders ruled by exalting themselves over the people they governed.
But, Jesus showed us that "whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many" (Mt. 20:26-28).
